True names are important: if somebody knows your true name, they have power over you. I’m not talking about Vernor Vinge’s important novella, True Names, although there is definitely a strong connection with it. Many contributors to social media, as we know,… Read More ›
I’ve heard that there are some people who think that English spelling is difficult. In fact, I think I know a couple of them. But nobody has to spend years learning how to spell Spanish words, so why do we… Read More ›
No, I’m not talking about Tom Lehrer’s famous song, “The Elements,” nor about n–2 others of the n parodies of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Major General’s song, where n must be a large number. I’m talking about “I Am the very Model of a Biblical… Read More ›
Who remembers diagramming sentences? I do, I do! If you’re my age, you never forget the experience of diagramming sentences. Love it or hate it (I was one of the few who loved it), you don’t forget it. Maybe you forget… Read More ›
That headline isn’t very helpful, as you have no doubt figured out. After all, it’s spelled “GIF,” but it’s pronounced with a hard G as in “gift” — or perhaps with a soft G as in “giraffe.” But which? You probably know the answer…… Read More ›
Hmmm… how can you communicate with someone when the two of you have no language in common? In linguistics this has been a major conundrum, especially in earlier centuries when there was no worldwide communication; in science fiction it has… Read More ›
The philosophers in the program were kind and excellent teachers, but the math professors I met in those days were somewhat less skilled at teaching or relating to people. One told us that we should think of him as a… Read More ›
Why is a lion a typical translator’s pet? That’s surely your first question on looking at the image that accompanies a post titled Koran dankon, tradukistoj, by the great Gaston Dorren, who posts all too infrequently. (In case that sentence is… Read More ›
Tim Cook, Richard Branson, Benjamin Franklin, Rachel Ray, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ernest Hemingway, and Michelle Obama: what do these seven people have in common? Or is it too early in the morning for you? The answer to the first question, according to… Read More ›
The Scots language has been in the news! Until a few years ago I didn’t even know what Scots is. Do you? If you’ve read my post of August 15, you do. Otherwise there’s a good chance that you don’t know, or… Read More ›
“What a silly question!” you reply. “We translate sentences in high-school language classes all the time!” Do you? You might not do that at all (perhaps you took a total immersion class) but let that pass. You probably did at… Read More ›
Let’s assume that you neither speak nor read Irish. (Probably a safe guess.) I, too, neither speak nor read Irish. But work with me here. Study this image, which shows an American wearing a custom tee shirt. Without knowing any Irish,… Read More ›
Where do I begin when I try to describe this marvelous book? If you look at the cover (see image at the bottom of this post), you’ll see that the full title of this book is The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic… Read More ›
Where do I begin when I try to describe this marvelous book? If you look at the cover (see image at the bottom of this post), you’ll see that the full title of this book is The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic… Read More ›
How is this book different from all other books in the series? I’m referring to Teach Yourself Library’s Script Hacking series, which teaches you several alphabetical writing systems — a limited objective, and the series does a good job with it. Little… Read More ›
Well, it does have two wheels, but I’m still skeptical. At least it says it’s “low emission.” Legal definition of bicycle, anyone?
Quick! How do you pronounce agoraphobia (a word we hear too much these days)? In particular, do you stress the first syllable and have a short /o/ in the second, or stress the first syllable but have a silent /o/ in the… Read More ›
Pronouns — as well as other linguistic tidbits — continue to be an issue far beyond what one might expect. Linguist Dennis Baron continues to be the primary authority on the topic of pronouns, and only partly because of their… Read More ›
A coming-of-age memoir by a Vietnamese refugee. That’s a flat, factual description of this powerful book. It doesn’t capture much of what it is like. The full title — Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the… Read More ›
You’ve heard of Fabricius, right? Actually, probably not. I hadn’t either. Here’s Google’s description of it: Fabricius, a Google Arts & Culture Lab Experiment that uses machine learning to help translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. That sounds implausible, but it’s true…. Read More ›
Learning Strategies 